Coaled Up

The Guru's scale length mineral trains have always been an impressive feature on New Mills but the up train has lacked loads. Not any more! Sparky has burnt the midnight oil in West Hillingdon and created authentic coal loads for the up set which had their first outing at Model Rail Scotland.

He cut dense foam blocks to fit the mineral wagon interiors then profiled their tops to capture that full load look. And for coal he actually used er....real coal. You can't beat it and it shames the synthetic alternatives. Before applying the coal to the foam formers he made sure that it was to crushed to a realistic size for 4mm. Check the contemprary photos...it rarely came in the large chunks that you see regularly modelled, often verging towards the 'fine dust' end of the spectrum.
Now for the iron ore rake!